[CAUT] Differences?

[Jeannie Grassi]

I used to tinker with things, too.  I even fixed an old piano one summer
when I was in high school.  The funny thing is that I wanted to be an
architect when I was in school and go to engineering school.  My guidance
counselor told me that I wouldn't be very good because I got a low score in
Mechanical Reasoning on my 8th grade skill assessment test! (As did most
girls!!!!!)   I believed it for a long time until I was an adult, living on
my own.  One day I looked around my apartment and realized I had about half
a dozen lamps and other things from friends who had asked me to fix them for
them.  I was really good at fixing things and all my friends knew it.  It
just took me a while to adjust my perception of myself.  It's funny how some
of those things can leave long-term damage. 

Shortly after that I embarked on a journey to do technical work.....first in
broadcasting.

But enough of my stories one day.....I sure am envious when I hear about
teachers like Ted S.  Before he left Banff I was in the process of figuring
out how to go up there for a training session.  Then he left.  What a shame
I didn't act immediately.

jeannie

Jeannie Grassi, RPT
Assistant Editor, Piano Technicians Journal
mailto:jcgrassi@earthlink.net


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf Of Susan
Kline
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 10:43 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: RE: [CAUT] Differences?

At 01:20 PM 1/21/2006 -0800, Jeannie wrote:
>Then, when they told me they would teach me, they only gave me a small 
>amount of information, or in some cases, misinformation, so that I would
fail.


Jeannie, I'm really sorry to hear that you had to go through this.

An incredible stroke of good fortune, that when I decided
to learn how to tune and repair pianos in 1978, Ted Sambell had just
set up the course I found. No doubt ever that he was
thoroughly and very effectively on my side, and that I would be
able to grow into any aspect of the business I wanted to, from
the start he gave me.

Yes, I had to take Home Ec in 7th and 8th grade as well, even
though my mom had already taught it all to me years before. I
didn't realize at the time how much I would have loved wood
and metal shop. I used to tinker with stuff on my own, without
having any real tools or knowing how to use them. I would buy
folding Kodak cameras from second hand stores, take them all
apart, fix the ball bearing shutters, clean them up, and put them all
back together again, with tweezers, lens tissue and lens-cleaning
fluid, sewing machine oil, and one small screwdriver. The big
ones, with old sizes of film which one couldn't get anymore,
I'd use by cutting and hand-loading sheet film. It was fun.

Pianos were a great discovery -- real tools, real parts, a ton of ways to
do things, and a huge playground of clapped out old uprights to
improvise affordable repairs on.

Susan

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